


It's Got to be More Than Flesh and Bone

by lowbudgetcyborg



Series: Stars Sail Out 'verse [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Demisexual Rocket Raccoon, Everyone Is Poly Because Guardians, Multi, OTTEAM
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 14:09:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11991423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lowbudgetcyborg/pseuds/lowbudgetcyborg
Summary: How they start doing more than kissing.A smutty side story, taking place during chapters 20 and 21 of Stars Sail Out.





	1. Chapter 1

“Before… all of you, I’d usually either bunk with Lylla or sleep outside with Groot when we’d visit. This time I’m probably just gonna alternate between bunking with you, and with her. Anyway. Uh. If you’ve been waiting for privacy to get naked with each other this might be a good time? I know the rest of you are a lot more normal about that stuff than me.”

Rocket had the skittish, defensive posture characteristic of him volunteering to discuss topics he usually avoided. Peter knew that Rocket already had both mental and physical escape routes mapped out and would bolt as soon as he felt that he’d said enough or someone started to pry too much.

Gamora looked concerned. “We don’t want to exclude you. I hope you know that.”

“Well I don’t want you to wait for me. ‘Cause I don’t experience, uh, y’know, _lust_ , all that often. And when I do I have pretty mixed feelings about it. So I’m not saying it’s never gonna happen, but it’s not gonna happen this week.”

“Okay,” Peter said. “I mean, it really is okay if you’re never interested in sex that much, or if you only want to do a few specific things in a few specific circumstances.” Some minute shift in Rocket’s facial muscles, both obscured and telegraphed by his fur, told Peter his intuition was on the right track with that one.

“But Rocket, don't think it’s just you holding us back or something. I'm afraid I'll offend everyone into leaving, Gamora’s probably got choice paralysis on top of everything else, and Drax never, ever, ever takes off his pants where anyone can see. It’s not like it would be an orgy every other day if you weren’t here.”

Rocket was startled into laughter, which he tried to cover with a cough. Gamora looked down to hide a smile and her cheeks and neck flushed darker green. They were so cute when they acted like shy teenagers, but it was also kind of intimidating. It made Peter feel like he couldn’t possibly be good enough to make up for all the stuff they’d missed out on. He reminded himself that literally no one was expecting that of him.

Rocket’s shoulders relaxed and his tail went from fake-casual to actual-casual. Groot noticed too and resumed gathering the dinner dishes, their own posture relaxing a little. Peter was glad he’d said the right thing. Tomorrow the team would be heading to Lothin to meet Lylla. Peter wanted Rocket to have as few worries about that as possible.

At bedtime that night Rocket curled up in the big bunk near Gamora’s shoulders and playfully headbutted her until she let him share her pillow.

Groot dropped Rocket’s favorite fuzzy blanket on top of him “I-am grooot.”

Gamora blinked. “Did you just tell me not to steal Rocket’s blanket?”

Groot nodded cheerfully. Rocket snickered.

“I don’t steal blankets.” Gamora protested.

“You frequently steal my blanket,” Drax said.

Rocket laughed harder. Gamora poked his shoulder.

“Only after you throw it off.” She conceded.

“So you  _ do _ steal blankets,” Rocket said. He was still laughing at her.

“Ugh, yes, I steal blankets. Shut up about it.”

Into the resulting silence Drax declared “The marks I got to commemorate my marriage to Hovat and the birth of our child are on my legs. I do not like to look at them, and for a long time I did not want other people to look at them. That is why I do not take off my pants around other people.”

Gamora sighed quietly. He was getting better at reading a room, but mood-inappropriate subject-changes were still very, very Drax. Of course, they all had painful things from their pasts that there was never a  _ good _ time to talk about.

“If you take your pants off I promise I won’t focus on your marks.” Peter said, somewhat muffled against Drax’s shoulder.

“Me too,” Gamora and Rocket seconded.

“I am Groot,” Groot added, and gave Drax’s foot a comforting pat.

“Thank you, my friends.” Drax said solemnly.

Gamora listened to everyone’s breath slowing down and relaxing. She was the last to fall asleep, as usual. When Drax started to snore she quietly ordered him to roll over. He turned on his side and stopped snoring. As Gamora fell asleep she wondered if Hovat had trained him to do that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from "Take it With Me," by Tom Waits


	2. Chapter 2

Gamora briefly expected that Peter would encourage something to happen the first night on Lothin, but she soon realized that everyone besides her was too overfed to want to do anything that involved vigorous movement. Peter was a little drunk as well, which he rarely allowed himself to be. It seemed to make him even more tactile than usual. When she sat by the firepit he flopped down on the grass near her and slowly wriggled closer until his head was resting on her thigh. Drax sat down on his other side, wedging Peter tightly between them. Peter made a small, pleased sound and relaxed even more deeply. He was soon mostly asleep.

“I aaam groot.” Groot said softly.

“Who’s adorable?” Lylla asked, lifting her head from where she was curled in Groot’s lap.

“Star-Dork.” Rocket answered from his perch on Groot’s back.

Lylla stood and stretched her neck to see over Drax’s shoulder. “Flark, he is adorable.” She trailed off in a yawn, then slid to the ground. “Okay. Guess it’s bedtime.”

Rocket followed her into her little cottage, and Groot went to plant themselves in a patch of dirt with good eastern exposure for the morning sun. “I am groot.”

“Sleep well,” Gamora answered.

Gamora had her arm draped over Peter’s shoulder and Drax put his hand over hers. She could feel the heat radiating from him, as from a stone wall at sunset.

“I will have to remember,” Drax said quietly, “that Peter likes to be confined between us.”

She looked up at him and he smiled one of his tiny smiles. Gamora loved the precise curves of his lips and the crinkles at the outer corners of his eyes. She felt an almost overwhelming desire to kiss his lips, so instead she leaned over and kissed his shoulder. He curled down towards her and kissed her forehead, where her mods showed through the skin over her eyebrow. She tilted her head up towards him and kissed his cheek, then, finally, his mouth. They traded lazy, gentle kisses until they were both yawning. Then they hauled Peter up between them, still mostly asleep, and led each other to bed.


	3. Chapter 3

Gamora began to initiate more touches with the others. She knew that Peter would let her take the lead in whatever happened between them. She didn’t think Drax was letting her set the pace so much as they were both equally hesitant. If he wasn’t she was sure he would have let her and the rest of the team know, as bluntly as possible. 

Peter and Drax basked in the extra attention, and even Rocket seemed to like it in moderate amounts. Context may have helped with that: Lylla often straightened his clothes or groomed his fur. Perhaps Rocket thought of extra physical contact as a usual part of visits to Lothin.

Gamora wanted, but she wasn’t sure what. She suspected that physical intimacy was one of those things that felt vastly different when you were doing it because you wanted to than when you were doing it as a means to an end.  

She had a pretty good idea of the mechanical possibilities. About a week after the team’s first in-depth conversation about what their marriage contract would be like Peter had handed her a memory crystal, saying “I gave this to Drax and Groot too, and I’ll give it to Rocket if he asks. I didn’t want to freak him out.” The memory crystal had contained a thorough course on Levavathi sexual and reproductive health, as well as whatever Peter could find about Zen Whoberi anatomy in the Nova library system, and an overview on Xandaran anatomy with a bullet-point list of ways in which Peter’s body was and was not like a Xandaran’s.

Gamora had laughed for a solid minute when she realized that _of course_ the thing that could get Peter Quill to voluntarily do book learning was sex. She didn’t tease him about it though; she was glad to have the information.

The next time Drax and Gamora were trading kisses by a dying fire Peter was awake and participating. Gamora sat astride Peter’s lap, alternating between kissing him and leaning over his shoulder to kiss Drax. Drax was pressed against Peter’s back and alternating between kissing Gamora and kissing Peter’s neck. Peter stroked her back, arms, and shoulders, occasionally reaching behind himself to skim his hand along Drax’s ribs.

“You can touch my ass, and my breasts,” she said to Peter as she drew her mouth off of his. “You too,” she told Drax as she lined up with him.

Peter’s hands immediately went to her ass to fondle appreciatively, and Drax’s hands soon covered Peter’s. Gamora smiled against Drax’s mouth, then gripped his shoulders to try and lever herself up and deepen the kiss. Drax lifted her, pressing her against Peter’s body, then licking into her mouth when both she and Peter moaned.

Gamora pulled away from the kiss to catch her breath, but didn’t let go of Drax’s shoulders. She didn’t want him to put her down.

Peter leaned his head back. His eyes were closed and he was panting a little.

“Is this okay? Is it too much?” Gamora asked.

Peter opened his eye and caressed her hip bones with his thumbs. “It’s okay. Might be almost too much, but in a good way.” Drax kissed his neck and Peter closed his eyes again, letting out a breath that was somewhere between a sigh and a moan.

“Would you like it if I bit you here?” Drax asked quietly, and Peter’s grip on her ass momentarily tightened.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhh… I would enjoy that a lot. Really a lot. But I don’t want to do that if we’re only going to be kissing.”

Gamora imagined that she could actually see the spike of arousal hit Drax as he sucked in a sharp breath and slowly let it out. Peter squirmed, just a little, as Drax’s exhale flowed over his kiss-dampened skin.

“I want to do more than kissing,” Gamora said quickly, before her habit of self-denial could kick in. “I don’t know how I can physically want something this much when I can live perfectly fine without it, but I’m tired of letting me talk myself out of it.”

“Fuck!” Peter whispered.

“Maybe not that, but I do want us to take our pants off,” Gamora replied.

He laughed. “That was rhetorical and you know it!”

“We were already doing more than kissing,” Drax pointed out as he lowered Gamora back down to Peter’s lap. “But if we are going to take our pants off we should go inside.”

Gamora rose to her feet at least as quickly as she had in any fight. “Yes, inside.”

“With a bed and fewer bugs,” Peter agreed, as he and Drax stood up as well.


	4. Chapter 4

Peter took Rocket’s pillow and blankets and piled them on a chair. Gamora resisted the urge to fold the blankets; it was really not that important for everything to be neat and tidy right now. 

Peter eagerly peeled off his tee-shirt and opened the fly of his pants before he remembered that he was wearing boots. He sat down on the bed, laughing at himself, to undo his buckles. Drax, with one armored boot already off, chuckled at Peter as well. Gamora realized she was falling behind, and crouched to undo the quick-release zip on her own boots.

After Peter stripped off his clothes he stretched out on the bed with his arms open at his sides, his pose a clear invitation. The others joined him, pressing in from either side, Gamora fully naked, Drax still in his briefs.

“Not that I’m complaining,” Peter said, “But what did I do to get to be the one in the middle?”

“You trust us,” Gamora said, running her hand over his chest hair.

“Your reactions to being in the middle are very pleasing.” Drax was leaning up on one elbow, looking up and down the length of Peter’s body.

“Ooohhh, you like to get reactions out of your sex partners.” Peter’s tone was one of enlightenment.

“Yes,” Drax confirmed.

“So if I make noises, and squirm around, and call out your name, and gasp for breath, and ask for more, those are all good things, right?”

“Yes,” Drax said again, breathlessly.

Peter smiled widely. “Awesome.” He lifted his head to share a lingering kiss with Drax, then turned to Gamora. “Do  _ you _ like to get reactions?”

“So far it seems like I do.” She took a deep breath. “And I’m hoping that exploring what I can do for you two will… alleviate some of my nervousness about what you can do for me.”

“It’s okay if you need to stop. Any time.” Peter reassured her.

Gamora nodded. “I know. But thank you for saying so.” She rose on her hands and knees to kiss him, and her hair fell into his face. He pushed it aside with practiced ease and she was glad that at least one of them knew what they were doing.

Peter hummed soft pleasure-noises as they kissed and she stroked one hand up and down his torso, from the softer body hair on his chest, down to the wiry hair that surrounded his genitals. Every time her fingers brushed that patch of wiry hair his hips lifted just a little bit, as if it were a reflex he couldn’t suppress. Gamora didn’t think she’d ever been this aroused before in her life. She could feel her pulse between her legs and the erectile ridges that framed her vulva were so hard they ached, but it was a good ache. When she shifted her weight she could feel that her thighs were wet, and she wanted to grind herself against Peter’s body so that he could feel it too.  

She pulled back and sat on her heels at the foot of the bed.

Peter blinked a couple times, but rallied his brain cells admirably. “You okay?”

She took a deep breath. Held it. Let it out. “Yeah. It’s just. A lot. I need a couple minutes.”

“It is not unusual to be overwhelmed,” Drax said, “And taking time to process it is just as valid a response as welcoming it.”

She got up and found a water bottle. “Welcoming it is scary,” she said to the wall before taking a drink.

“We are here to help you with fearful things.” Drax said in his simple, earnest way.

She quickly took another drink to swallow down the lump in her throat. “Too many feelings,” she said with a rough laugh. “I want to see what happens when you bite Peter’s neck.”

“Oh man, seconded.” Peter said. “And while you’re standing could you get the lube out of my top drawer?”  

Gamora found it easily. “Who do you want to use it on?”

Drax was kissing Peter’s neck again, probably trying to get him back to the state he was in before she pulled away. “I want, ahhh, someone to use it on me.”

Drax had Peter roll onto his side and spooned up behind him. Gamora sat down in front of Peter. She watched as Drax experimentally scraped his teeth over various points on Peter’s neck, while casually grinding against Peter’s ass. Finally Drax bit down a few inches below Peter’s ear. Peter bucked and cried out, clutching at the sheets. “Oh! Oh yes!”

“How do you want me to use this lube on you?” Gamora asked Peter before Drax bit his neck again.

“Please!” Peter wailed as Drax bit down. “I want your hands on my cock. Please make me come!”

She trailed her fingers down the length of his erect shaft. The vulnerability of the hot, smooth skin was fascinating. She poured out some lube onto her hand, then wrapped it around his shaft and stroked slowly and firmly from root to tip. Peter groaned wordlessly. 

“Show Gamora how you touch yourself,” Drax suggested. Peter covered her hand with his, and did a similar stroke, but with a twist at the end.

She copied the motion and he swore breathlessly. “Oh fuck yes...”

Her own heat and desire was a pleasant background noise to Peter’s babbling cries and Drax’s quieter moans.  

“Can I make you climax like this?” she asked when Peter’s words trailed off. She knew the answer; she just wanted to hear him talk more.

“Yes!” He was thrusting into her strokes, and his eyes were squeezed shut. “I’m almost… feels so good, both of you so good…”

His voice faltered and he thrust faster. She sped up to match him. “Yes, Peter, yes…”

He climaxed with a long, wordless groan and collapsed on the mattress.

Gamora carefully cleaned his softening cock and her hand before letting Peter flop out of the middle spot so she could press against Drax.

Drax lay on his back. She straddled his waist and gripped his shoulders to anchor herself. “Drax. I need…” She pressed her face against his chest. It was so hard to admit she needed anything. 

Drax stroked his hands down her back. “You can have what you need. Just tell us what that is.”

“You don’t have to fight for it,” Peter said, sounding a little slurred in his post-orgasm haze, “You don’t have to prove yourself. Just ask.”

She growled in frustration at herself. She could feel her cheeks and neck heat with an embarrassed blush. “I want you to touch my genitals,” she forced herself to say. “I want to be… to be penetrated. I want you to feel how wet and hot and aroused I am and I want you to like it.”

Drax moved his hands lower, cupping her ass like before, but this time there were no clothes between her skin and his. His fingertips lightly brushed the wet folds of her vulva and she pressed towards his touch.

“I do feel how aroused you are, and I like it very much.”

She squirmed backwards, trying to get more of his fingers on her.

He rolled over, tipping her off of him and onto her back. “Would you like me to penetrate your genitals with my fingers?”

“Yes!” She spread her legs, hooking one over his thigh to keep him close.

Drax stroked two fingers lightly over her opening. She gasped and thrust her hips. He carefully explored her folds to discover the shape of the hard ridges beneath her skin, and caressed first one side, then the other.

“More!” she demanded. “I want your fingers in me.”

“Yes.” He pressed his fingers into her slowly and she clenched down on them with a groan. The heat and pressure of Drax’s fingers felt amazing, and she thrust her hips eagerly.

Drax kept up a steady rhythm with his hand and murmured in her ear. “I would like to penetrate your genitals with my genitals, to feel the tight, wet, heat of your genitals surround mine. I think you would like to be on top of me, yes?”

“Yes,” she agreed, pressing her face against his skin. “Yes, I’d like to do that.”

As Drax finally took off his briefs Gamora looked over and noticed that Peter was watching them as if they were the most captivating entertainment he’d ever had. She gave him a quick kiss before climbing on top of Drax again. Peter laughed at her impatience and handed Drax the lube bottle.

“Do we need that?” Gamora asked.

“There’s no such thing as too much lube,” Peter said cheerfully. “Unless it’s getting all over the floor.”

Drax slicked himself up with slow, exaggerated movements, which completely derailed any arguments Gamora thought she had against more lube. Gamora squirmed against his thighs as she watched him. Finally he pulled her up and kissed her thoroughly before she slid down to guide him in.

At first she wanted to take him in all at once, to feel the hot stretch and fullness of it, but the texture of his genitals sliding between her ridges was so delicious she found herself rocking at a slow, luxurious pace, taking just a little more of him in with every movement.

Drax moaned quietly, the same breathy sound he had made while rubbing himself against Peter. His hands spread on her thighs and his hips rocked up to meet hers. When she finally had the full length inside she stilled for a moment to enjoy how the thicker base of his genitals pressed hard on both of her ridges.

“Gamora,” Drax whispered urgently, “please move.”

She set the same steady rhythm he had used with his fingers inside her. He matched her thrusts with his own and his moans grew ragged as he neared his first climax. When it came he arched up into her for a long moment, clenching his teeth and swallowing a cry. She felt him swell, and the hot pulse of his semen before he resumed their previous pace.

“Drax,” She groaned, “I need more, faster.” She felt like she was made of molten rock: heavy, mindless heat to the very tips of her fingers and toes.

“Show me what you need,” Drax urged her, “You can have what you need.”

Gamora made a sound halfway between a sob and growl, then started to thrust and grind against Drax almost frantically. She groaned when he clutched her hips and matched her pace. Soon she felt him climax again, filling her with more wet heat. She didn’t-- couldn’t-- let him pause this time, but thrust desperately as she felt herself start to clench around him.

“Drax!” She panted. “Drax, fuck, fuck, yes Drax, ah, ah, ahhh!”  

She dropped to his chest, gasping for breath. Drax was still hard, and the sweet drag of him slipping out of her sent tingles through her body.

Gamora felt the mattress shift as Peter moved, heard him and Drax kissing hungrily, felt his fingers combing her sweaty hair off her face.

She started to shift her weight, but Drax spread his warm hand over the cooling skin of her ribs. “Stay there please.”

She nuzzled her cheek against his skin. “Okay.” She didn’t really want to move for the foreseeable future.

Peter moved somewhere behind her and she heard wet, slick, flesh on flesh sounds. She smiled to herself as Drax began to thrust his hips a little.

“Peter, “ she asked lazily, “Are you touching Drax?”

“Yeah,” he answered, a little shaky and breathless.

“Are you touching yourself too?”

“Mm-hmm.” His breath hitched into a small gasp. “Wanna watch?”

“Nnnnn… I’m good here.”

Peter laughed and she could hear his movements speed up.

“C’mon Drax,” he coaxed, “I want to see you come. I’m so close just from watching you and Gamora. Ready to go without anyone even touching me, like I’m a teenager again. I’m so hard for you. I want to feel your come on me…”

Drax muffled a shout into his pillow when he climaxed, then lay panting as Peter followed.

Gamora smiled wider, feeling giddy and pleasantly worn out. Soon someone would have to get up, and find wet naps, and retrieve all the blankets they’d kicked to the floor. But for for now they were filthy and tired and vulnerable, and it was a close to perfect as anything Gamora could imagine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter brought to you by the poor air quality warning that kept me inside all weekend. And it is dedicated to argyleam, who wrote the first Drax/Gamora/Peter that I read here, as well as hobbitdragon, Thorinsmut, and werpiper who inspired me to create the smut I wanted to see in the world. 
> 
> Please leave feedback; this is my first story with actual genitals touching and I want to know if I did ok.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: Rocket uses anti-sex worker language and displays anti-sex worker attitudes, but Lylla does not put up with that for long.

When the sounds from the pop-up cabin finally stopped Lylla chuckled. “Good for them. I’m a bit surprised that Drax was the quietest.”  


Rocket stretched and curled up again, laying his head on Lylla’s hip. “He used to be a regular person. He probably had to learn to do it without waking up his kid.”  


“Mm, right,” Lylla murmured, then let the quiet expand, giving Rocket the opportunity to fill it. He had been sending her increasingly agitated, increasingly encrypted messages alluding to the whole sex problem since his team got engaged. Unfortunately, this was was the kind of thing he would only really talk about with her, in person, no humies around. She wasn’t even sure he had the vocabulary to talk about it. She hadn’t until recently.  


“What do you do. Uh. In the spring?”  


Rocket’s shoulder was tense against her lower back. She stroked his fur and took a couple breaths, cultivating calm.  


“Well, for the last couple years I’ve been hiring a sex worker.”  


Rocket twitched. Or maybe _flinched _would be more accurate. “What, like a hooker bot?”__  


Lylla sighed. “No. A consenting, self-aware, skilled professional.”  


“That’s a skill now?”  


She reached down and flicked his ear. “Don’t devalue interpersonal skills just ‘cause you barely have any.”  


Rocket huffed, then after a moment asked “Does it help?”  


“I still gotta mostly just wait out the season, but it does help. My body isn’t my enemy, ya know? Fighting it isn’t going to make anything better.”  


Rocket grunted noncommittally; embodiment was complicated at best for both of them, and this was an old argument. At least he didn’t seem to be using “fly it like you stole it” as a self-care philosophy any more. _Come to think of it..._  


“You should talk to Gamora about this,” Lylla said decisively. “You said she’s stolen goods too. I bet she’d get some of it.”  


“Gamora’s more normal about sex than me.”  


“There’s no such thing as normal.” She didn’t even bother flicking his ear this time.  


Lylla didn’t understand why Rocket always compared himself to the humies when there were hundreds of species in the galaxy and his life-partner (or first of four life-partners, as it eventuated) was a tree. “Anyway, it’s not your seasonally-regulated sex drive that’s the issue. You’re just hiding behind that. You need to trust your team to take care of you when you’re vulnerable. You need to decide if showing the parts of yourself that you usually cover is worth the potential fun and bonding of physical intimacy. That’s what you should talk to Gamora about.”  


“I don’t wanna make her talk about that stuff if she doesn’t want to.”  


“You mean you don’t want to bring it up first. Maybe she doesn't want to bring it up first either? Don’t make her be the bravest one all the time. I bet it’s exhausting.”  


“I know I’m being a d’ast idiot,” Rocket sighed. “I know that the only person on the whole team who’s actually had sex with a member of their own species is Drax… and I guess Groot, depending on your definitions. I mean... “  


He trailed off with a quiet sound of hitching breath. Lylla felt Rocket curl up tighter, still pressed against her back. When he spoke again it was a harsh whisper. “I got two arms, and two legs, and bilateral symmetry just like the rest of them, but I keep thinking that my fur and my hook dick are gonna be too far for them to go and I know it’s so _flarking stupid_ , but I can’t _not_ think it.”  


Lylla curled around Rocket and stroked the fur on his forehead. “It’s okay if you can’t not think it. Just remember it’s not true. We both have a knack for finding the people who are so weird they gotta make their own in-group from scratch. Or maybe weirdos just gravitate to each other. You are going to be fine.”  


“Okay.” Rocket took a deep breath and uncurled himself a little. Lylla felt him gradually un-tense until she fell asleep.


End file.
